哈佛教学案例（英文版）.pdf25

"It was Michael's idea. He's a visionary in our industry," stated Morton Topfer,
Vice Chairman of Dell Computer Corporation, gesturing toward Michael Dell's office across the
hallway. "There's no doubt that Dell Online is a huge innovation, just as Dell Direct was a decade
ago. But times have changed. We are now a big company, with 1997 revenues of nearly $12
billion and a growth rate of 50% over the last three years. We have to be nimble but methodical in
how we absorb and build on this new approach of going to market," added Topfer.
In July 1996, Dell Computer had launched its online website, www.dell.com. The
online store mirrored the experience customers had when they called Dell's toll-free 800 number
to place a direct order. Site visitors could customize a computer's configuration to suit their needs,
noting how those changes improved performance and affected pricing. Additionally, customers
could check on the status of their order at their convenience and even receive technical support
online. The store was open 24 hours a day. The response to the retail store was overwhelming,
with hundreds of thousands of people visiting the website each week and generating millions of
dollars of revenue for Dell.
In addition to its online store, Dell also developed Premier Pages, online interfaces
with its key corporate accounts. Customers viewed the Premier Pages to get technical help, to
access their Dell account executive, or in some cases, to place orders using the customer's
preferred pricing and standard configurations. Scott Eckert, the 30 year old director of Dell Online,
remarked, Dell's foray into Internet-based sales, marketing and support has been a big win. We're
getting a lot of publicity about selling $3 million a day on the Internet-- and our goal is to execute
half of Dell's sales volume over the Internet within three years. It's also clear that major
competitors such as Compaq are attempting to break with tradition and imitate Dell, not only by
going direct to the consumer, but also by letting the customer configure his/her product. We need
to leverage our initial success into a sustainable competitive
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